physics

Marcos Moshinsky

Marcos Moshinsky is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Marcos Moshinsky rather than just read about it. In short: Marcos Moshinsky Borodiansky (Russian: Маркос Мошинский Бородянский; Ukrainian: Маркос Мошинскі; 1921–2009) was a Mexican physicist of Ukrainian Jewish origin whose work in the field of elementary particles won him the Prince of Asturias Prize for Scientific and Technical Investigation in 1988 and the UNESCO Science Prize in 1997. Early life He was born in 1921 into a Jewish family in Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR.

Key takeaways

Marcos Moshinsky belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Marcos Moshinsky to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Marcos Moshinsky from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Marcos Moshinsky Borodiansky (Russian: Маркос Мошинский Бородянский; Ukrainian: Маркос Мошинскі; 1921–2009) was a Mexican physicist of Ukrainian Jewish origin whose work in the field of elementary particles won him the Prince of Asturias Prize for Scientific and Technical Investigation in 1988 and the UNESCO Science Prize in 1997.

Early life He was born in 1921 into a Jewish family in Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR. At the age of three, he emigrated as a refugee to Mexico, where he became a naturalized citizen in 1942. He received a bachelor's degree in physics from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and a doctorate in the same discipline at Princeton University under Nobel Laureate Eugene Paul Wigner.

Career In the 1950s he researched nuclear reactions and the structure of the atomic nucleus, introducing the concept of the transformation bracket for eigenstates of the quantum harmonic oscillator, which, together with the tables elaborated in collaboration with Thomas A. Brody, simplified calculations in the nuclear shell model and became an indispensable reference for the study of nuclear structure. In 1952, his work on the transient dynamics of matter waves led to the discovery of diffraction in time. After completing postdoctoral studies at the Henri Poincaré Institute in Paris, France, he returned to Mexico City to serve as a professor at the UNAM. In 1967 he was chosen president of the Mexican Society of Physics and in 1972 he was admitted to the National College. He was the editor of several international scientific reviews, including the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, and authored four books and more than 200 technical papers. He received the Mexican National Prize for Science (1968), the Luis Elizondo Prize (1971), the Prince of Asturias Prize for Scientific and Technical Investigation (1988) and the UNESCO Science Prize (1997). In 1990 he was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society "for his many fundamental contributions to the description of many-body quantum systems through the use of group-theoretical techniques" While practicing physics, he wrote a weekly column in the newspaper Excélsior on Mexican politics.

References

This article began as a translation of the corresponding article in the Spanish-language Wikipedia.

M. Moshinsky and Y. F. Smirnov, The harmonic oscillator in modern physics, Informa HealthCare, Amsterdam 1996. Moshinsky, Marcos (1952-11-01). "Diffraction in Time". Physical Review. 88 (3). American Physical Society (APS): 625–631. Bibcode:1952PhRv...88..625M. doi:10.1103/physrev.88.625. ISSN 0031-899X.

External links Profile at the Prince of Asturias Foundation (in Spanish) Profile at the National College of Mexico.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Marcos Moshinsky

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Marcos Moshinsky claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Marcos Moshinsky before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Marcos Moshinsky ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Marcos Moshinsky

In research: Marcos Moshinsky appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Marcos Moshinsky in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Marcos Moshinsky is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1921 births, 2009 deaths, 20th-century Mexican physicists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Marcos Moshinsky outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Marcos Moshinsky” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Marcos Moshinsky in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Marcos Moshinsky means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Marcos Moshinsky out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Marcos Moshinsky in simple terms?

Why does Marcos Moshinsky matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Marcos Moshinsky?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Marcos Moshinsky.